October 13

October 13

  http://qz.com/808434/student-protests-for-free-university-education-in-south-africa-are-intensifying-with-no-end-in-sight/

This article from Quartz, an African news outlet, gets into the deeper issues being brought up by the protests which have turned increasingly violent in past month. The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, has established a task team consisting of eight cabinet ministers, mostly police and security, to review the issue of tuition hikes at universities. Interestingly, as this article reports, neither the finance minister nor the treasury are included in this task team. Meanwhile, at universities, many of which have shut down and postponed classes, students are lining up with rocks and riot police are fighting back with rubber bullets and tear gas. The violence has led to several arrests of students on charges of public violence and assault. At several universities, students have set fire to buildings and security vehicles. Blade Nzimande, the Higer education minister, has said that these protests have become politicized and that they are no longer about tuition fees but regime change. Nzimande, along with other political leaders kow that the younger generation is upset with the ANC’s governance and accuse the students of trying to stir up discontent for the party. Many of the student protest leaders are being criticized for the amount of violence that has resulted in the protests, but they refuse to let up until an agreement is reached with the government. This article also claims that women and the LGBTQ community feel left out of the movement and underrepresented, showing a certain amount of exclusivity in the movement. So far the protests have cost South Africa millions of dollars in property damage, and most sources don’t see the protests going away any time soon.